USA > New York > Wayne County > Palmyra > A memorial of the celebration at Palmyra, N.Y. of the centennial Fourth of July, 1876, including the oration by Theodore Bacon, and a sketch of the early history of Palmyra, by Rev. Horace Eaton, D.D > Part 1
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Gc 974.702 P18p 1555836
M.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01150 9939
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/memorialofcelebr00palm
F8510.69
1876.
Independence The at Holmora, A. .
WITH EARLY HISTORY OF THE TOWN.
NEWBERE
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A MEMORIAL
OF THE
CELEBRATION
AT
PALMYRA, N. Y.
OF THE
entennial
ourth of July
1876,
INCLUDING THE
NEWBERRY LIBRARY CHICAGO
ORATION BY THEODORE BACON,
AND
A SKETCH OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF PALMYRA,
BY
REV. HORACE EATON, D. D.
ROCHESTER, N. Y. E. R. ANDREWS, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, AQUEDUCT STREET,
1876.
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1555836
PRELIMINARY ORGANIZATION.
The Town of Palmyra at the Annual Meeting March 7th, 1876, voted to raise by tax, two hundred dollars, to aid "in the proper observance of the coming Fourth day of July in the Village of Palmyra."
Tuesday evening, May 9th, 1876, a citizens meeting was held in Village Hall to consider the subject of a proper celebration upon July 4th, this year of the Centennial Anniversary of the Declaration of American Independence.
The officers of the meeting were MARK C. FINLEY, President, and Col. GEO. McGOWN and OLIVER DURFEE, Secretaries.
At this meeting there was appointed the following
General Committee of Arrangements.
PLINY T. SEXTON, Chairman,
HENRY P. KNOWLES,
JOSEPH W. CORNING,
ISAAC G. BRONSON, FRANK C. BROWN,
GEO. HARRISON,
HENRY R. DURFEE,
LEONARD S. PRATT, WELLS TYLER.
Thursday, May 11th, the Committee of Arrangements met and appointed the following
Sub-Committees.
On Orator and Reader-CHARLES MCLOUTH, S. B. MCINTYRE, JOHN W. CORNING.
On Finance-CHAS. D. JOHNSON, GEO. HARRISON, W. S. PHELPS, JOHN F. STRAIN, OLIVER DURFEE, CHAS. W. TUCKER, JAS. REEVES, PETER C. HOWELL.
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THE CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.
On Ordnance-Capt. HENRY J. DRAIME.
. On Fire Works-JOHN W. CORNING, ALEX. RANNIE, CHAS. B. BOWMAN.
On Printing-ISAAC G. BRONSON, GEO. McGOWN, E. S. AVERILL.
On Music-LEONARD S. PRATT, D. B. HARMON. C. B. BRIG- HAM, S. E. HARKNESS, ANDREW SEELY, CALEB BEAL.
On Programme-HENRY R. DURFEE, JOSEPH W. CORNING, HENRY P. KNOWLES, FRANK C. BROWN, PLINY T. SEXTON, GEO. McGOWN.
On Decoration-FRANK C. BROWN, WELLS TYLER, ISAAC F. TABER, CHAS. SNEDAKER.
ORGANIZATION FOR THE DAY.
Orator. THEODORE BACON of Rochester.
Reader of the Declaration of Independence. REV. C. W. WINCHESTER.
President of the Day. MAJ. GEORGE W. CUYLER.
Col. JOSEPH W. CORNING, Maj. H. P. KNOWLES, Maj. M. HOPKINS,
Chief Marshal. Ass't Marshal.
Vice-Presidents.
Arcadia-Dr. C. G. POMEROY, JOEL H. PRESCOTT.
Marion -- AMASA HALL, CHARLES TREMAINE.
Walworth-THERON G. YEOMANS, W. D. WILEY.
Macedon-JERE. THISTLETHWAITE, LYMAN BICKFORD, WM. P. NOTTINGHAM.
Ontario-A. W. CASEY, A. J. BIXBY.
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THE CELEBRATION.
Williamson-JOHN P. BENNETT, T. SCOTT LEDYARD. Manchester-JOHN W. PARKER, WM. H. SHORT.
Palmyra-GEO. HARRISON, JAS. REEVES, ORNON ARCHER H. K. JEROME, WM. H. SOUTHWICK.
THE OBSERVANCE OF THE DAY.
July the Fourth, 1876, the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Declaration of American Independence, was observed by the citizens of Palmyra and its vicinity, with becoming spirit and appropriate solemnities.
The opening day was greeted with a Federal salute of thir- teen guns by the Artillery, under command of Capt. H. J. Draime, and by the pealing of bells.
Soon after eight o'clock, citizens from the neighboring vil- lages and the surrounding country began to arrive, and by half- past nine, the time for the forming of the procession, the streets of our village presented a sight that has seldom, if ever, been equalled.
Thousands of people of all ages thronged the main thorough- fare, and every residence and building displayed National Emblems; some being elaborately draped with the "Red, White and Blue."
Punctually at the appointed time the grand procession was formed, under the direction of Col. Joseph W. Corning, Mar- shal of the Day, and his Aids, Majors H. P. Knowles, and M. Hopkins.
The following, taken from the official programme, was sub- stantially the
Order of the Procession.
1 .- Palmyra Cornet Band.
2 .- A detachment from Zenobia Commandery Knights Tem- plar, as escort.
3 .- Palmyra Lodge 248 F. & A. M. 4 .- Pierian Lodge 243 I. O. O. F. 5 .- Palmyra Grange P. of H.
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THE CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.
6 .- President and Vice-Presidents of the Day, Orator, Reader and Clergy, in carriages.
7 .- Village and Town Officials, Invited Guests, Committee of Arrangements, and Soldiers of 1812.
8 .- The Sunday Schools of the several Churches, under charge of their Superintendents.
9 .- Veteran Martial Band.
10 .- Soldiers of the Late War.
II .- Fire Department, with Steamer, Hose Cart and Hook and Ladder Truck.
12 .-- Highlander in Costume, with Bagpipes.
13 .- Trades and Industries, Printing Press in operation on wheels.
14 .- Citizens in General, on foot or in carriages.
15 .- Grand calvacade, representing Gen. Washington and Staff escorted by Continental Cavalry, all in old time costumes, and composing the largest and most interesting body of mounted men ever witnessed in this vicinity.
The line of march included several of the principal streets and ended at the Grand Stand on the grounds of the Union School, where admirable arrangements had been made for the carrying out of the following
Order of Exercises.
I. Music by the Palmyra Cornet Band, Andrew Seely, leader.
After which, owing to the illness and absence of Major Geo. W. Cuyler, President of the Day, Pliny T. Sexton, Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, called the meeting to order, saying, in substance,
" Friends and Fellow Citizens :- To-day it may be said, that " as American citizens, we are all one hundred years old,-an " age which is but as a day we trust in this Nation's enjoyment "of the fruits of that great struggle whose beginning we are " here assembled to commemorate.
"It is not at all in the spirit of an idle frolic that we have "gathered in attendance upon this Our Country's birthday "party ; but rather with reverent gratitude to the Great God of " Nations for the blessings and protection bestowed on the peo-
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THE CELEBRATION.
" ple of our land, and in opening the formal exercises of this " day we will call upon the Rev. John G. Webster to give voice " to our hearts in thanksgiving and prayer."
2. The Rev. JOHN G. WEBSTER offered the following Prayer.
Almighty and eternal God, King of kings, and Lord of lords, by whose fiat nations exist, continue or decline, we bow before Thee this hour in humble adoration; acknowledging Thee as our Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier and divine Benefactor.
We render to Thee our unfeigned thanksgiving for this goodly Heritage that Thou hast given us, and for all the institutions of moral, social, and intellectual development that abound in it.
We praise Thee for the light of the Gospel, for the blessing of Liberty, for the protection of Law.
We pray Thy blessing upon our nation ; and for all in author- ity over us ; for the President of the United States, the Governor of our State; for all Legislators and officers. Give them wis- dom to enact wholesome laws, and impartial fidelity in their administration and enforcement, that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety may be established among us forever.
Bestow and continue thy blessing upon this whole people. May we all and each peform our manifold duties as responsible to Thee.
Be with us in this day's celebration ; may our rejoicings be quickened by patriotism; may our festivities be tempered with moderation ; and may we so live and act in Thy sight, in all things all our days, that when we depart hence we may be received into Thy Heavenly Kingdom.
We ask these mercies in Thy name, and through the merits of our dear Redeemer and Saviour, Jesus Christ, in whose perfect form of words we conclude our prayer: Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name; Thy kingdom come ; Thy will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us ; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
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THE CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.
3. Music. The Choir and audience sang
Whittier's Centennial Hymn.
Our father's God ! from out whose hand
The centuries fall like grains of sand, We meet to-day, united, free, And loyal to our land and Thee,
To thank Thee for the era done,
And trust Thee for the opening one.
Here, where of old, by Thy design, The fathers spake that word of Thine,
Whose echo is the glad refrain
Of rended bolt and falling chain, To grace our festal time from all The zones of earth our guests we call.
Be with us while the New World greets The old world thronging all its streets,
Unveiling all the triumphs won
By art or toil beneath the sun ;
And unto common good ordain
This rivalship of band and brain.
Thou who hast here in concord furled The war-flags of a gathered world,
Beneath our western skies fulfil
The Orient's niission of good will ;
And, freighted with Love's golden fleece,
Send back the Argonauts of peace.
For art and labor met in truce, For beauty made the bride of use, We thank Thee, while withal we crave
The austere virtues, strong to save ; The honor, proof to place or gold ;
The manhood, never bought or sold !
Oh ! Make thou us, through centuries long,
In peace secure, and justice strong ;
Around our gift of freedom draw
The safeguards of the righteous law, And cast in some diviner mold, Let the new cycle shame the old ! .
4. Reading the Declaration of Independence, by Rev. C. W. WINCHESTER.
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THE CELEBRATION.
5. Centennial Song; words by JOHN MCINTOSH :
The spirits of our fathers throng The spaces of the West, Forgetting heav'nly heart and song, In regions of the blest. They seek to touch with sacred fire, The souls that mingle here,
And joining in our Nation's choir, Salute our hundreth year.
CHORUS-Our bright centennial year hurrah ! Long wave our flag of stars. With heart and soul this glorious year We welcome with hurrahs. 'Hurrah ! hurrah ! hurrah ! hurrah !
'Mid cannon smoke and flashing swords They hailed our nation's birth ;
With throbbing hearts and burning words, To all the sons of earth,
The banner of the free they gave- Our flag to freemen dear ; And so was ushered by the brave Our nation's natal year.
CHORUS-Our bright Centennial year, hurrah, &c.
Long may that starry standard glow, The beacon of the West ;
Its stripes a curse to ev'ry foe, Its stars to freemen blest ;
And in the van of progress aye Be all its folds unfurled, The fire by night, the cloud by day, To lead the modern world.
CHORUS-Our bright Centennial year, hurrah, &c.
6. The grand event of the day followed, in the delivery by THEODORE BACON, Esq., of Rochester, of an eloquent oration, which he has kindly permitted the Committee to print and pub- lish in full with this report of the exercises.
7. Music, Yankee Doodle, by the "Veteran Martial Band. " This band was composed of men whose devotion to martial music began over half a century ago, and they gave much time and patience to practice, in reviving their old skill, that they might grace, as they did most highly, this centennial occasion.
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THE CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.
Their names are: MORGAN DOTY, ABEL D. CHASE, PETER . TAYLOR, JOHN JORDAN, MORGAN L. ROBINSON, and LYMAN PIERCE.
8. Music. Scotch airs upon Bagpipes, by Prof. PROCTOR, in Highland costume.
9. Music. The entire assembly joined in singing, to the grand old tune "America," the following
Hymn.
Free by thy might, O God, . We sound thy praise abroad In grand acclaim ! Through night and storms and tears,
Through dark and bloody years,
More than all strength that cheers Was thy great name !
So, ever led by thee, Right on to liberty
Our fathers strode ! Their children own thy hand,
And o'er our goodly land
Uncovered, rev'rent stand, To worship God !
Free in the vows we speak- Free in the laws we make- Here freedom's seat !
Fair cities rise in might,
Fair fields the eye delight,
Truth free upholds the right -- O joy complete ! Rise, sons of liberty !
Rise, maids and matrons free ! Rise, children, rise ! Hail now the hundredth year !
Hail with resounding cheer ! Let all the nations hear Freedom's emprise !
Sacred the tears we shed Over the honored dead Of that great time ! Shout we adown the years, Ye who are freedom's heirs, Guard ye the ark that bears Our hope sublime !
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THE CELEBRATION.
Faith, law, and liberty, Triumphant trinity, By thee we stand ! Long as the rivers run, Long as endures the sun, Our flag and country one --- God keep our land.
IO. Benediction, by Rev. H. EATON. D. D.
At the conclusion of the exercises, the procession reformed and escorted the Orator and officers of the day to the Palmyra Hotel, where the latter dined together in an informal manner, and honored with the company of the entire clergy of the vil- lage, including the following reverend gentlemen :
Rev. HORACE EATON, D. D., Presbyterian.
Rev. JOHN G. WEBSTER, Episcopalian.
Rev. C. W. WINCHESTER, Methodist.
Rev. WM. CASEY, Roman Catholic.
Rev. CHAS. C. SMITH, Baptist.
At mid-day, Capt. DRAIME put in a Centennial reminder of one hundred guns, from his battery on Mt. Holmes; and at sun- set a National salute of thirty-eight guns.
In the evening, a fit finale of the memorable day was found in the following
Grand Display of Fireworks.
I. Star of '76 and Union. 7. Brilliant Cross.
2. Fairy Dance. 8. Medallion of Washington.
3. American Flag. 9. Revolving Globe.
4. Chaplet. IO. Polka.
5. Chinese Tree.
II. Yankee Doodle.
6. Scroll Wheel.
I2. Liberty -- 1776-1876 -- and Battery.
The above was interspersed with a fine display of floral shells, rockets, mines, batteries, roman candles, &c.
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THE CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.
THE ORATION:
BY
THEODORE BACON, of Rochester.
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The occasion which we commemorate to-day, familiar as it is to us by its annual recurrence-fixed as it is in our national life,- is in its very conception distinctive and American. It is not the birth-day of a reigning prince, however beloved; it is not the holiday of a patron saint, however revered ; it is simply the festival of our national existence. Unimaginative as we are, we have impersonated an idea-the idea of nationality ; and the festival of that idea, instead of a man or a demi-god, we cele- brate to-day.
And we do right to celebrate it. The fact of this national existence is a great fact. The act which first declared the nation's right to exist was a great act-a brave act. If it was not indeed, as we have been ready enough to assert, a pivotal . epoch in the world's history, it was beyond question a decisive event in our own history. If it was not the birth-day of the nation-for the nation was born long before-it was the day the still-growing youth became conscious of its young maturity, asserted its personality, and entered on equal terms into the community of nations. And whatever errors there may have been in our methods,-whatever follies of mere deafening or nerve-distracting noise,-whatever mad recklessness with deadly explosives, such as will make to-morrow's newspapers like the returns of a great battle,-whatever flatulence of vain-glorious boasting from ten thousand platforms such as this,-it is none
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THE ORATION.
the less a goodly and an honorable thing, that the one universal festival of this great nation should be the festival of its nation- ality alone. This, and this only, is the meaning of our being together to-day; that we are glad, and joyful, and grateful, that we are a nation ; and that in unison with more than two-score millions of people, throughout the vast expanse of our imperial domain, we may give utterance to the joyful and thankful thought, "The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad."
It is well, then, to.celebrate and rejoice. The many reasons we have for joy and pride are familiar enough to you. If there were any danger of your forgetting them, they are recalled annually to your remembrance by addresses such as you have honored me by calling on me to deliver here to-day. And in considering how I could best respond to your request, in the few moments which you can spare from your better occupation of the day, I have thought it superfluous to repeat to you those glories of which your minds are already so full, deeming it a better service to you, and worthier of the day, if I suggest
CERTAIN LIMITATIONS UPON NATIONAL SELF-LAUDATION.
Let me recount to you, summarily, the familiar and ordinary grounds of our boasting on such days as this. Then go over them with me, one by one; consider them soberly; and see whether we are in any danger of exalting ourselves unduly by reason of them.
I. We conquered our independence.
2. We govern ourselves.
3. We have enormously multiplied our numbers, and ex- tended our boundaries.
4. We have enormously increased our material wealth, and subdued the forces of nature.
Education and intelligence are in an unequaled degree 5. diffused throughout our population.
6. To crown all, we have but just now subdued a gigantic rebellion, and in doing so have incidentally suppressed the great national shame of human slavery.
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THE CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.
Consider them :
I. We conquered our independence.
Beyond doubt, this was a grand thing to do, even in view of all the advantages that aided our fathers, and of all the difficulties that burdened their enemies. It was not, indeed, except in a certain limited and qualified sense, what it is commonly misnamed, a revolution. It was rather a movement of conservatism,-of resistance to an innovating despotism, seeking to impose the bonds of distant authority on those who were free-born, and who had always governed themselves. This resistance to ministerial novelties was in the interest of all Englishmen, and, until this very day one hundred years ago, was in the name of King George himself, whom we still recog- nized as our rightful monarch, after more than a year of flagrant war against his troops. It was (do not forget) a war of defence, against an invader from the paralyzing distance of 3000 miles ; yet that invader was the most powerful nation in Europe. It enlisted (remember) the active alliance of France, and stirred up Spain and Holland to separate wars against our enemy ; yet even with these great helps, the persistency of the struggle, the hardships and discouragements through which it was maintained to its final success, were enough to justify the honor in which we hold the assertors of our national independence.
2 .- We have inherited, it is true, by a descent through many generations, certain principles of government which recognize the people as the source of authority over the people. Yet not even the founders of this federal republic-far less our- selves, their century-remote descendants, could claim the glory either of inventing these eternal principles or of first applying them in practice. Before Jefferson were Plato, and Milton, and Locke, and Rousseau. Before Philadelphia were Athens, and pre-Augustan Rome; Florence and Geneva ; Ghent and Ley- den ; the Swiss Republics and the Commonwealth of England. Before the United States of America were the Achaan League, the Hanseatic League, and-closest pattern and exemplar- the United Provinces of the Low Countries. Beyond doubt, however, it is something to be glad of that our ancestors began the century which closes to-day, upon the solid foundations of
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THE ORATION.
a faith in the right of self-government, when so many other nations of the earth were to be compelled to labor and study toward the acceptance of that faith, or to legislate and fight and revolutionize toward the embodiment of it in institutions. But whether that prodigious advantage with which we began the century should be now the occasion of pride or of some different emotion, might depend on other questions : Whether, for example, that advantage has enabled us to maintain to this day the the pre-eminence over other nations which it gave us a hundred years ago; whether, as they have advanced, we have only held our own, or gone backward ; whether our ten talents, the magnificent capital with' which we were entrusted, have been hid in a napkin and buried, while the one poor talent of another has been multiplied a hundred fold by diligence and skill. It is a great thing, no doubt, for a nation to govern itself, whether well or ill; but it is a thing to be proud of only when its self-government is capable and just. Let us look for a moment at the relative positions in this respect of our own and other nations a hundred years ago, and now.
A century since, the idea of parliamentary or representative government, primitive as that idea had been in the earliest Teutonic communities, and embalmed as it might still be in the reveries of philosophers, had no living form outside of these colonies, and of that fatherland from which their institutions were derived, and with which they were at war. In Great Britain itself, a sodden conservatism, refusing to adapt institu- tions to changing circumstances, had suffered them to become distorted with inequalities; so that the House of Commons, while it still stood for the English People, and was already beginning to feel the strength which has now made it the supreme power in the nation, was so befouled with rotten bor- oughs and pocket boroughs, that ministers easily managed it with places, and pensions, and money. The whole continent of Western Europe was subjected to great or little autocrats, claiming to rule by divine right, uttering by decrees their sovereign wills for laws, despising even the pretense of asking the concurrence of the governed. In France, an absolute despot, a brilliant court, a gorgeous and vicious civilization of the few, were superposed upon a wretched, naked, underfed
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THE CENTENNIAL AT PALMYRA.
peasantry ; tithe-oppressed, tax-ridden ; crushed with feudal burdens upon the soil, or dragged from it to be slaughtered in foreign wars for matters they never heard of. Germany was either parcelled out, like Italy, among countless princelings, maintaining every one his disproportionate army, and court, and harem, and squeezing out taxes and blood from his people utterly without responsibility ; or was crushed beneath the iron despotism o. the Great Frederick in the North, or of the less capable Empire in the South. To the East, the great plains of Russia were an unknown darkness, where a shameless fury maintained an Asiatic reign of force and terror. Here and there a philosophical recluse was evolving from his books and his invention, systems of government which denied and an- tagonized the claims of divine right on which every dynasty in Europe was founded ; yet so remote from any practical appli- cation did these speculations seem that the most absolute monarchs took pride in sharing them and fostering them. There were, indeed, things called "republics; " there were the despotic aristocracies of Venice and Genoa; there were their High Mightinesses, the Estates of the United Provinces; there were the confederated cantons of Switzerland, fenced in their mountain strongholds, but without influence upon European thoughts or institutions.
Over against that Europe of 1776, set the Europe of to-day. Nation after nation-call off their names : observe their systems of government, and say, when you have completed the tale, how many sovereigns there are who rest their title to supremacy upon divine right by inheritance ; how many governments there are whose daily continuance -- how many whose very birth and origin, are derived avowedly from no other source than "the consent of the governed." There are indeed crowned heads to-day; heads wearing crowns which have descended by but two or three degrees from the most confident assertors of "the right divine of kings to govern wrong;"-right royal men and women- nay more, right manly men and right womanly women ; yet of all these there is hardly one who pretends to be more than the mere executive of the national will, expressed through a repre- sentative legislature. The England which our fathers denounced as tyrant, and foe of freedom-let us not commit the anachron-
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THE ORATION.
ism of confounding her with the England of to-day. Ruled by a National Assembly chosen by a suffrage little short of universal, exercising final and absolute legislative authority, with the merest advisory concurrence of an hereditary Senate ; its executive body little more than a standing committee of the House of Commons, removable in an instant by a mere expres- sion of the will of the House; and all under the nominal presidency of a quiet matron, to whom even the external cere- monies of her position are irksome; with a system of local- and municipal administration, which, whatever its defects, may well invite our admiration and study; the sturdiest proclaimer of the doctrines of our "Declaration " could hardly have figured to himself a future America which should more fully embody those doctrines than the realm of George the Third has come to embody them under his granddaughter. If we look across the channel, we find all Western Europe, from the Polar Sea to the Mediterranean, the undisputed domain of constitutional, repre- sentative, elective government. If the name and state of King or Emperor are maintained, it is in effect but as a convenient instrument for the performance of necessary functions in the great public organism, and with a tacit, or even an express acknowledgment on the part of the crown that "the consent of the governed " is the true source of its own authority. Over the feudal France which I have but just now pictured to you, has swept a flood which not only destroyed institutions, but extirpated their immemorial foundations ; which not only leveled the hideous inequalities of mediævalism, but leveled upward the Gallic mind itself; so that hardly less than the American citizen-far more than the British subject-is the Frenchman of to-day penetrated by the consciousness of the equal rights of all men before the law. His form of supreme administration may vary from time to time, in name, or even in substance ; but for fifty years it has stood upon the basis of the public consent, or, when it has failed so to stand, has fallen. The France of Richelieu-the' France of that Louis XIV who dared to say of the State, "It is I," is the France whose latest king called himself no longer King of France, but King of the French ; whose latest 'Emperor claimed no right to rule but from a popular election by universal suffrage-boasted of being
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